Photo taken by Daynah using Camera+ on the iPhone 4

Day 2 in Canada was a day of passing through beautiful towns and taking walks in these amazing cities.

We spent the entire day in Niagara Falls yesterday. It’s a good idea to get a hotel there since it’s about 2 hours from Toronto. Day 2 in Canada was mostly driving to Toronto and stopping at various places along the way.

We drove by the Niagara Botanical Gardens and saw so many busses pull in that we had to stop by ourselves! The gardens were beautifully maintained and contained all sorts of plants. Walking around was quite relaxing, especially on such a nice day. There were also horse carriages giving tours of the gardens. And in the center of it was also a Butterfly Conservatory. There were lots of photo ops here. The only thing lacking were the roses. They’re not in season yet, so some parts of the gardens were flowerless.

We left the botanical gardens and took a left. If you drive for a few minutes, you’ll pass by the Niagara Floral Clock. Be sure to turn on the curvy street and stop by! It’s a giant functional clock made perfectly out of flowers. You can see a photo of it above.

We continued to head East and stopped by a little town called Niagara-on-the-Lake. My friend Claudia suggested that I visit it, and I’m so happy she did. This town was gorgeous! Every lamppost had a big bouquet of flowers hanging from it. Everywhere you looked had colorful blooms. The only difficult thing in this city was finding parking, and I can see why! It took us a while, but after driving up and down the street a few times, we found street parking. This city had lots of unique little shops and take a nice walk to each one. We stopped by The Epicurean Restaurant for lunch. It’s a cute little restaurant tucked away from all the excitement happening in the street. The food was quite fresh, and they make it when you order it. Albert highly recommends the beef pot pie. (See food pictures!)

By 5pm, we hurried off to Toronto. The drive there wasn’t as spectacular. They closed down the Gardier Expressway, so you had to take the Lake Shore Blvd (almost like a highway) that parallels it. That means you get all of the local city traffic. It took about 30 minutes to go a few miles. On the bright side, look to your left and you’ll see some amazing ads made of plants and white rocks. It looks lovely! And on your right side is Humber Bay. You’ll see piers, parks, and beaches as you drive to your hotel. It’s a slow, but scenic route!

After we checked into the hotel, we took a while into Downtown Toronto, in search for a good place for dinner. The city was packed! There was a music festival happening, and people singing on the sidewalk, and just excitement everywhere. We walked around a bit and found a place called Fine Asian Bowl, which was mostly Vietnamese food. Delicious!

After dinner, we took the subway and headed toward the CN Tower. We got there a bit too late, and they were closing up, so we ended up taking some night shots with the tower instead. We walked back to the hotel after, which was very close by!

There’s so much to see and do in Toronto.. that I wish I had another day or two to explore.

Tips: To-Do list if you’re driving from Niagara Falls to Toronto..

• Visit the Botanical Gardens
• Take a photo with the Niagara Floral Clock
• Stroll down the streets of Niagara-on-the-Lake. I hear that they have nice wineries too, so visit those if you have time.
• Have lunch here, I recommend at The Epicurean Restaurant
• American and Canadian money are inter-changable in Niagara Falls and Toronto, so no need to exchange them at the airport.

Disclosure: Many thanks to Virgin America and Klout for their special promotion. I was given free roundtrip tickets for LA-Toronto as part of a Klout Perk. #VXToronto

What a dramatic night sunset! Today’s weather was just lovely. I was especially happy to see the sun after all the storms and flooding we had in the last week.

I was inspired to work on my flower garden today, so I headed out to Lowe’s.

On the way to the store, I saw these lovely snow-capped mountains!

After searching around the garden section, Albert and I decided to buy the pretty red velvet tulips. We spent the late afternoon cleaning out the front yard and removing the old plants. Now I have pretty blooming tulips to greet me every morning. I hope they grow big and bloom a lot this spring!

Photo taken by Albert

We took a stroll around the resort in the morning and found a nice Mexican for lunch. Their specialty was fresh guacamole created right in front of you. It was the best guacamole I’ve ever tasted!

After lunch, we drove back to National Mall to explore a little bit more. Seeing the first airplane, made by the Wright Brothers, at the Air and Space Museum made was pretty amazing! We also saw some of the first spacecrafts that went into space as well.

We also explored the National Museum of American History. I was really looking for Dorothy’s red slippers.. and finally found them just before the museum closed! I also found Kermit and Oscar the grouch too. ;)

All of our feet were sore by now. We rested a bit and then went to see the capitol building. It was such a gorgeous sight. The cherry blossoms were blooming a bit early.. so we got some great photos of that!

For dinner, we headed to Georgetown and went to Moby Dick’s House of Kabob. It was packed yesterday, so we were happy that we got the chance to eat it today. Their rice is so fluffy!